A roundup of links to local stories of global importance from around the world.

Of an estimated 14,400 candidates for provincial offices, nearly 4,000 are women.

Pilgrims travel to Karbala year-round to honor Hussein, the martyred grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, whose murder, in part, caused the schism between the Sunni and Shia. In the time of Saddam such observances were banned, but in wartime Iraq, marked by vicious sectarian violence, the pilgrimage is more dangerous than it has been in years.

One of the world's least-known societies, Iraqi Kurdistan, is under ongoing genocidal attack by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. British filmmaker Gwynne Roberts shot inside Iraqi Kurdistan for five years to prepare this unique report on a group who may play a crucial role, equivalent to that of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, in any military attempt to overthrow Saddam's bloody regime.